Reviews

House of Spies by Daniel Silva

lynn_pugh's review

adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-paced

4.5

vaderbird's review against another edition

4.0

5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish

linsophie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Antisemitism, Blood, Gun violence, and Religious bigotry

ellarymt's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

tpaulschulte's review against another edition

5.0

Daniel Silva is a master. What more can you say. The quality of story has always been 5 star. From The Unlikely Spy to this new novel have all been quality.
I love the Gabriel Allon series and really hope that Christopher Keller gets his own novel at some point. House of Spies us vintage Allon.
If you have never read this series, do yourself a favor and pick up The Kill Artist or the second book in the series, The English Assassin (which is a classic) you will be hooked.

omnibozo22's review against another edition

5.0

It was good to read a well written spy novel after some of the drivel I'd read recently. Of course the story conveniently ignores Israeli expansion in the West Bank that fuels some of the Muslim fury against them, and casts disenfranchised poor Muslims as the primary evil doers in the current world. While global capitalism takes a hit, the US, British and Euro rapacious bastards get off far too easily. Still, it was mostly a well told story with plausible tradecraft and outcomes. The author's notes at the end, and unusual touch for a mostly fictional thriller, were interesting and provided other source books to read. Looks like Silva has a boatload of other titles for me to find.

tvisser's review against another edition

4.0

Another great addition to the Gabriel Allon series, so many familiar names and personalities. Audiobook has a good narrator.

jonjeffryes's review against another edition

4.0

This book delved into the detail of different aspects of spy craft--mostly the cultivating of an asset--but was kind of drawn out plotwise. Bringing in the asset could have been pitched with Hitchcockian paranoia but reads more as reportage. But Silva's a top notch writer and it all moved forward propulsively. All on felt a little too sidelined in all the action.

angelahayes's review against another edition

5.0

5 Stars

House of Spies is the seventeenth book in the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva.
This series just seems to get better and better with each new instalment. Riveting reading!
As I have mentioned before, this is another book/series that has been languishing on my TBR- which I finally got around to dusting the cobwebs off- and jumped right in. I read the series back to back.

richardwells's review against another edition

4.0

I think I've read all the Gabriel Allon books, but I needed a break after feeling they had become more of the same. I was thrilled when Gabriel was promoted, and this is the first book with him as the Chief. It doesn't fail to deliver. This time its hashish, ISIS, drones, Corsican gangsters and a very likable MI6 assassin who likes to use a hammer.

Couldn't put it down.